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Friday, 13 May 2011

The Problem With Choosing To Take Your Clothes Off

Note: I wasn't going to write about this experience because, well, it happens so often that I've kind of learned to live with it. But then I read the fantastically titled blog post "The Trouble With Choosing Your Choice" by the fantastically talented Meghan Murphy, and I got "inspired". WARNING: That link containst feministically-triggering material. Approach with care if, like me, you turn into a raging lunatic at the sight of sexism in action.

I went to a club on Saturday. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, because there were no cups and even less tea. But I went because The Boyfriend really wanted to.

It may have been a less than remarkable experience had it not been because of some turd assuming it would be a great idea if they projected softcore pr0n images on the wall while everyone, men and women, danced their butts off.

So while everyone, Boyfriend included, danced their butts off, I was left with no option but to remain in a corner, hiding away from the blaring misogyny shouting at my face.

It didn’t make me nearly as angry as it would have 5 years ago. I am mellowing with age, and I’m also realising that the world doesn’t seem to give a shit about how shit everything is, so really, why should I.

So, here are some of the thoughts I tried my best to keep at bay, so I could occupy the same space as these images without going barmy.

a) Mainstream seriously means mainstream. Women carry on uncomplaining about pr0n, and the amount of pr0n invading our lives increases in amount and degree. I bet my pink feathered flowery hat that the turd who thought this projection was a good idea didn’t think for a minute that it would alienate the women attendees.

b) No other woman seems to be hiding in a corner. I hate you all for being cool with this. I may have to rot in Hell while living on this planet, but so will you and your daughters. Har Har.

c) These images must come from the 50s or before. The women are skinny and have really tiny boobs. Which goes to show how much the proliferation of plastic surgery and pr0n has changed our perception of what normal boobs look like. So much for “it doesn’t have an impact on your life”.

d) I bet these women were “choosing”. I bet that if anyone dared question their “choices” they would claim that they should be free to choose their choice.

I don’t have to bet about this because I’m sure of it. Here is the killer argument against how “choosing your choice” is the justification for somebody’s actions.

Everybody’s choices affects everyone else. Period. So nobody gets to choose what they want just because it works for them, because chances are their “choice” is screwing up someone else.

Long time ago, in a land far far away, a few women thought they could make some good money by waitressing in bathing suits with a bunny tail attached or even more money by posing without their bras on.

Fast forward to 2011, not only do women not make a penny for doing similar things, but even bathing suits have been forced out of fashion in favour of more “revealing” clothing. That is the effect of "mainstream-isation".

Nowadays, if a woman wants to make a similar amount of money (accounting for inflation), she has to engage in far more degrading, painful, humiliating, dangerous practices which I will not describe.

Sure, taking off their bras for the camera may have made the lives of a few women a bit better.

But it has effed up the lives of women today, who have to resort to more, shall we say, “drastic” measures if they want to sell their bodies.

Not to mention grab their male partner’s attention.

And now, for a really depressing thought: if today women who want to make themselves some money have to engage in these degrading, painful, humiliating, dangerous practices… what do you reckon women will have to do in the future to earn a similar amount of money (accounting for inflation)?